Damning report rates Halifax probation service as 'inadequate' in all areas

The West Yorkshire Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) is one of the region's probation services which works to rehabilitate convicted criminals back into the community to prevent them from re-offending.

But a recent inspection carried out by the HM Inspectorate of Probation found the management of risk of harm was "consistently poor".

It also found staff were "overwhelmed", the service was "under-performing" and highlighted a large proportion of domestic abuse cases where not enough was being done to assess people at risk.

All four aspects of the Halifax-based service were rated Inadequate – the lowest possible grade.

The CRC supervises low and medium-risk offenders, although its most recent inspection found the service had cut the number of probation officers since the last one in 2018.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell said: “During this inspection we analysed a sample of cases to find out how staff assess, plan, deliver and review activity with individuals on probation. We found the management of risk of harm was consistently poor.

“A large proportion of cases involve domestic abuse and safeguarding issues. Major improvements are needed to ensure staff use all the available information to assess risk factors. They should also work with other agencies, such as the police and children’s services, to manage potential risks of harm.

“As a result, we have rated all four aspects ‘Inadequate’ – our lowest possible grade.”

Mr Russell added: “When we inspected West Yorkshire CRC in 2018 we found challenging staffing levels and many staff told us they were overwhelmed. This affected the CRC’s ability to supervise individuals effectively.

“Since then, the CRC has restructured and reduced the number of qualified probation officers. This has resulted in staff at a lower grade taking on larger workloads – even though some of them lack the necessary skills and experience to undertake complex work.”

However, inspectors did note that the West Yorkshire CRC did have some strengths, with the report noting effective services available for women and people of South Asian heritage.

Martin Davies, chief executive of the West Yorkshire Community Rehabilitation Company (WY CRC), said: “We welcome the report and have implemented a series of measures to improve practice where issues have been found. We deliver targeted training and audits to help develop our colleagues so they can provide the best possible service to offenders under our supervision, and we also take swift action to hold offenders to account for their behaviour.

“Protecting the public is our priority, and the HM Inspectorate of Probation’s (HMIP) report highlights that our senior managers are working hard to further improve the service we provide, despite the well-documented financial challenges caused by the Community Rehabilitation Company contracts.

“To further improve our practice we have also taken the decision to create a new senior position at WY CRC and their absolute focus will be on delivering the best possible service and realising the changes expected by the HMIP report.”